Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To oppose in battle; fight against.
  • intransitive verb To act or work in order to eliminate, curtail, or stop: synonym: oppose.
  • intransitive verb To engage in fighting; contend or struggle.
  • noun Fighting, especially with weapons.
  • noun Contention or strife.
  • adjective Of or relating to combat.
  • adjective Intended for use or deployment in combat.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A fight, especially, in earlier use, between two; in general, a struggle to resist, overthrow, or conquer: contest; engagement; battle.
  • To fight; struggle or contend; battle; especially, in earlier use, engage in single fight.
  • To fight or do battle with; oppose by force; contend against; resist contentiously: as, to combat an antagonist; to combat arguments or opinions.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To fight with; to oppose by force, argument, etc.; to contend against; to resist.
  • intransitive verb To struggle or contend, as with an opposing force; to fight.
  • noun A fight; a contest of violence; a struggle for supremacy.
  • noun (Mil.) An engagement of no great magnitude; or one in which the parties engaged are not armies.
  • noun one in which a single combatant meets a single opponent, as in the case of David and Goliath; also, a duel.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A battle, a fight (often one in which weapons are used); a struggle for victory.
  • verb transitive To fight; to struggle for victory.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb battle or contend against in or as if in a battle
  • noun the act of fighting; any contest or struggle
  • noun an engagement fought between two military forces

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French combattre, from Old French, from Late Latin combattere : Latin com-, com- + Latin battere, to beat (alteration of battuere).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French, from Old French combatre, from Vulgar Latin *combattere, from Latin com- ("with") + battuere ("to beat, strike").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word combat.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Try replacing this word with wombat for a kinder, gentler world.

    January 19, 2020